Crose

Mr. and Mrs. John A. Dunn, Kissimmee, announce the engagement of their daughter, Lisa Ann, to Todd Alan Crose, son of Mr. and Mrs. Troy D. Crose, Kissimmee. The wedding is April 11. The bride-elect is a graduate of Osceola High School. Her fiance also graduated from Osceola High School.

As a group of burglary suspects crisscrossed Florida in recent months, following them was a special Osceola County sheriff's squad given authority to watch crimes without making immediate arrests. By the time the investigation was over, deputies had arrested a veteran thief and Kissimmee real estate broker identified as the ring's fence, as well as recovered more than $120,000 worth of fancy sunglasses stolen from coast to coast. To do that, court records show, the undercover squad traveled outside Osceola and watched two store burglaries as they occurred, intending to apprehend the suspects as soon as they drove back to Kissimmee, where the deputies had arrest powers.

An Osceola County deputy sheriff and SWAT team member will not be disciplined for shooting himself in the hand while cleaning his gun.Deputy Troy Crose, 26, shot himself in the left hand Nov. 29 while cleaning his 9mm semiautomatic handgun in the garage of his Kissimmee home.The shot damaged tendons and bones in Crose's hand and required surgery, said sheriff's spokeswoman Allison Stroud.Crose, a deputy since 1986, had just come home from SWAT training and was cleaning his weapon, as required by regulation.

KISSIMMEE -- One person was found dead in a Kissimmee home and another was rushed to a hospital after deputies arrived to find the pair on the floor of a locked bedroom, the Osceola County Sheriff's Office said. About 8 p.m., the Sheriff's Office received a 911 call from a groaning person at 104 Alixco Court. When deputies arrived, they found children playing in the cul-de-sac and an open garage door. When deputies walked around back and looked inside the house, they saw two people on the floor.

An Osceola County deputy sheriff was in stable condition Friday after shooting himself in the hand while cleaning his gun.Deputy Troy Crose shot himself in the left hand about 9:30 p.m. Thursday while cleaning his 9mm semiautomatic handgun in the garage of his Kissimmee home, sheriff's spokeswoman Allison Stroud said.Crose, 26, had just come home from SWAT training and was cleaning his weapon, as required by department regulation. He apparently did not realize there was one round left in the gun, Stroud said.

KISSIMMEE -- A veteran sheriff's lieutenant will forfeit two days' vacation pay after an internal investigation concluded that he exercised poor judgment when he cleaned his gun at a staff meeting and used questionable language at a patrol briefing. The internal report, released this week, indicates that a sergeant pushed his chair out of the way because he was concerned about how Lt. Jay Crose was handling his department-issued Glock .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun. The incident happened at an April meeting of supervisors.

An Osceola County deputy sheriff confiscated 1.5 pounds of crack cocaine Wednesday from the car of a Georgia man on Florida's Turnpike, according to a spokesman from the sheriff's office.L.B. Thomas, 44, and Katherine Jackson, 31, were arrested and charged with trafficking cocaine. They are both in the Osceola County jail under $200,000 bonds.Deputy Jay Crose said the left rear light on the 1975 Oldsmobile was inoperable as it was traveling on the turnpike between Yeehaw Junction and Kenansville around 2 p.m.Crose said he arrested Thomas because he was driving with an expired license.

Every tool provides opportunity. The user proves his or her intelligence by knowing when and where that tool is of use or abuse. I'm opinionated, admittedly; I think we have hordes of people showing their stupidity by trying to impress people with their expenditures. L. Charlott Crose Orlando

In the race for longevity, women are winning by about seven years.The ''weaker sex'' seems to roll with the punches that often knock the most macho men out of the race early.Flexibility, resilience and connections protect women against early death, while their male counterparts often are wiped out by their own rigidity, aggression and denial of feelings, says Dr. Royda Crose, director of the Center for Gerontology at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind.''The real gender gap emerges as we age,'' says Crose, author of the new book Why Women Live Longer Than Men . . . And What Men Can Learn From Them (Jossey-Bass, $24)

This is a severed head tale with a happy ending.It was a sordid scene straight out of a Sam Peckinpah horror film that hot July night: Two young men drove the darkened backroads of Osceola County. A trunkless head lay silently - as severed heads do - in the back seat.This wasn't just any severed head; it was Mickey Mouse wearing a chef's hat.It wasn't exactly the crime of the century, but it grabbed 15 minutes of unwanted fame for two Walt Disney World employees who were charged with ripping chef Mickey's head from its moorings at the Walt Disney World Shopping Village.

Of course petting zoos should be eliminated, along with gym classes, art, music, theater and recess. Make everything antibacterial. Give these kids more free time to run the streets after they have been locked up at home alone, exposed to nothing but visual violence. Our educators are giving up because these children have had so little attention. Their parents are taking away all that might possibly strengthen these children's immune systems, awareness of beauty, chores that teach responsibility and compassion for man and beast.

Every tool provides opportunity. The user proves his or her intelligence by knowing when and where that tool is of use or abuse. I'm opinionated, admittedly; I think we have hordes of people showing their stupidity by trying to impress people with their expenditures. L. Charlott Crose Orlando

Kevin Crose likes Hooters. He likes Hooters a lot. In the 1.5 million miles or so this trucker has logged crisscrossing America, hauling everything from Florida orange juice to furniture, he has eaten at as many Hooters as he could. "I ain't been to them all -- they're building too many of them," Crose said, with the sign of the Hooters of Lakeland reflected in his sunglasses. "I love the wings, but I go there for the girls," he said, his gut bundled in his working man's T-shirt. "They're nice to look at."

They were killed in the cold, on a snowy mountain range on the other side of the world by men they never knew and probably never even saw. They were buried in sunshine on a cloudless day, among people who loved them. Two towns in Florida grieved Monday as two U.S. soldiers, killed in Afghanistan during Operation Anaconda, were buried on opposite sides of the state -- one near Jacksonville, the other in Bushnell. In the Jacksonville suburb of Middleburg, several thousand people lined a busy commercial strip as a hearse drove by carrying Sgt. Bradley Crose, an Army Ranger cut down at 22. In St. Petersburg, surrounded by the family who loved him and the fellow Army Rangers whose code of honor he died defending, 30 year-old Spc. Marc Anderson was mourned at a funeral service at St. Raphael Catholic Church.

ST. PETERSBURG -- A tearful President Bush sought Friday to comfort the families of two Army Rangers killed in Afghanistan but warned that the war on terrorism will cost more American lives. The president's lips quivered and he wiped tears from his eyes when he introduced and then spoke with the families of Sgt. Bradley Crose, 22, of Orange Park and Spc. Marc A. Anderson, 30, of Brandon, who were among eight Americans killed in fierce fighting during Operation Anaconda. "I know your heart aches, and we ache for you," said Bush, choking back tears.

ST. PETERSBURG -- Wendy Anderson sat at her kitchen table Tuesday night speaking softly and holding photos of her brother-in-law, Spc. Marc A. Anderson. She had received the photos from Afghanistan several days ago. They showed a burly man with a blond crewcut, smiling as he sat in a Jeep with two buddies. "His home was everywhere, and he was loved by everybody," Wendy Anderson said. Anderson was one of two soldiers from Florida killed in the fiercest fighting so far of America's five-month war in Afghanistan.

KISSIMMEE -- One person was found dead in a Kissimmee home and another was rushed to a hospital after deputies arrived to find the pair on the floor of a locked bedroom, the Osceola County Sheriff's Office said. About 8 p.m., the Sheriff's Office received a 911 call from a groaning person at 104 Alixco Court. When deputies arrived, they found children playing in the cul-de-sac and an open garage door. When deputies walked around back and looked inside the house, they saw two people on the floor.

Jay Crose teaches Osceola County students about guns from experience: He shot himself two years ago.''I don't want to gross you out, but I want you to know what it's like if you shoot yourself,'' Crose, an Osceola County deputy sheriff, told a class this week.The show-and-tell that followed included Crose's scarred left hand and a tape-recording of his 911 call on the night of Nov. 29, 1990.Crose had been cleaning his pistol after a week of SWAT training. He was tired. A telephone call distracted him. He still can't believe what happened.

KISSIMMEE -- A veteran sheriff's lieutenant will forfeit two days' vacation pay after an internal investigation concluded that he exercised poor judgment when he cleaned his gun at a staff meeting and used questionable language at a patrol briefing. The internal report, released this week, indicates that a sergeant pushed his chair out of the way because he was concerned about how Lt. Jay Crose was handling his department-issued Glock .45-caliber semiautomatic handgun. The incident happened at an April meeting of supervisors.

In the race for longevity, women are winning by about seven years.The ''weaker sex'' seems to roll with the punches that often knock the most macho men out of the race early.Flexibility, resilience and connections protect women against early death, while their male counterparts often are wiped out by their own rigidity, aggression and denial of feelings, says Dr. Royda Crose, director of the Center for Gerontology at Ball State University in Muncie, Ind.''The real gender gap emerges as we age,'' says Crose, author of the new book Why Women Live Longer Than Men . . . And What Men Can Learn From Them (Jossey-Bass, $24)